Iowa Man Beaten in Casino, Awarded $1.7M in Court Ruling

Taking initiative is sometimes a great idea, however, when it comes along with inflicting serious damage on someone else, it’s usually a good idea to have someone stop you before it’s too late. Williams is going to pay the price for taking matters into his own hands, according to jury’s decision.

Serious Consequences for Gunhus

Montana Gunhus, 36, was attacked in a Waterloo casino by another client back in 2021. The story, covered by The Courier, started with an allegedly lost players club card, which Gunhus had started using. The jury has reached a final decision, according to which $1.73 million would be paid by the attacker. This would cover medical expenses, past and future loss of mind and body, and past and future pain and suffering.

Damond Williams – whose wife’s card it was – reportedly contacted casino staff and the card was traced to Gunhus, playing a slots machine, spending $100 in credits. However, while security staff was approaching Gunhus, Williams has reportedly taken initiative, inflicting a rather heavy beating upon Gunhus, which is why he was charged with willful injury for causing so much damage.

The Courier reports that the fight took less than thirty seconds, during which time Williams repeatedly landed kicks and punches on Gunhus, and with the casino’s hands-off policy for physical confrontations, some serious damage was done by the attacker without anyone attempting to stop the fight. This included some facial fractures and Gunhus ending up blind with one eye.

Williams Nowhere to be Found

According to the report, out of the $1.73 million, $100,000 of it was for past pain and suffering and $1 million for future pain and suffering. The second largest sum went for future loss and body, totalling $550,000 for future loss and $50,000 for past loss. The rest is meant to cover medical and legal expenses, with a total of $45,000 in loss of parental consortium.

The $1.73 million was a smidge below the $1.98 million that Gunhus and his lawyer – Jordan Talsma – had asked for. However, it’s still close enough for it to mean that the jury was definitely agreeing with the point that Talsma was making – that the casino was eager to take the players’ money but refuses to offer protection.

The casino in question – Isle Casino Hotel Waterloo – has reportedly said that its hand-off policy is actually considered standard for the Midwest’s casinos of similar size. It would be interesting to know whether the casino would be willing to reconsider its policy in light of the dire consequences one of its patrons suffered partially because of the lack of intervention.

There are many such examples where intervention has been crucial in deciding the severity of the outcome of fights that break out in casinos during the small hours, with some even resulting in the officers that do intervene getting hurt. A fight that had broken out inside the Rivers Casino Pittsburg back in April resulted in the security officer ending up with a lacerated lip and some minor head injuries but at least the pair of problem-starters were stopped before any serious damage could be inflicted and were both facing charges. Maybe it would be a good idea for some of those aggressive types to go to Nevada’s slap fights to let out some steam – at least that would be regulated.

It’s also very interesting that Gunhus was found completely in the clear, when in fact it was him playing with someone else’s card, spending a stranger’s money completely freely. However, given the severity of his injuries and how completely changed his life would be as a result, the jury has reportedly found no comparative liability on Gunhus’ side, and Williams still has an arrest warrant in his name.